Multi-criteria Comparison of Sustainability in Brazilian, American and European Banks

Abstract

This paper compares the sustainable development of fifteen important banks that located, in general, in Brazil, United States, and Europe. The banks were chosen from their market value and analyzed about their investor performances. The bank’s comparison used indicators extracted from their Global Reporting Initiative, which represent their sustainability reports. For the research robustness the decision support multicriteria analysis was used as methodology, which in the application of the method ELECTRE III was possible to verify the ranking of companies according to direct sustainable reports. The results showed a greater commitment of Brazilian banks to sustainable development, while the others, European and American, were shown to have an equivalent performance in many aspects and indicators, specifically about social impacts. The results also demonstrate that in the banking sector, there is still much space for improvements in relation to sustainability. It was concluded that sustainable strategies allied to the Triple Bottom Line are a corporate and operational differential. Thus, it is expected to contribute to the deepening of enterprise policies across all strategic decisions focused on sustainability. Sustainability is the most important aspect for strategy decisions, nowadays, and this application helps for it.